live we are to new center attend a heavy police presence on the streets so the cypriot capital tonight where crowds gathering angered by the country's uncertain future looking at live pictures now from nicosia provide a video agency ruptly more than online crossing the shortly other headlines cyprus officials near across to setting off. showed a three way rescue is the island scenes over the shuttered banks of the cold shoulder from europe. in a more top stories a rocket attack on israel miles of his visit to the region as he meets palestinian leader mahmoud abbas with prospects of the trip bringing stability still a distant hope we've got live comment on that they say. plus the united nations is to investigate the alleged deadly chemical attack in aleppo now following demands for a probe from both the syrian government and the opposition is accused each other of

the assault. all over again he has just joined us it's kevin live q. tonight in moscow and the big news this cypriots feeling the squeeze still with angry crowds now pressing on parliament tonight denouncing a nationwide bank shutdown and potential job cuts thousands have been cut off from their life savings and many may see them vanish of course after the east threaten to cut cyprus off from emergency funds the island nation rejected the president in brussels tax on bank deposits tesser seller is at the parliament for us. emotions are really running high i saw several people who were hysterical the police were handing somewhat bottles of water to them because they really really were very angry at the chanting that they are saying they're saying leave the bank alone now that's one of the two biggest bags of cyprus that is in trouble at the center of

this whole of financial crisis here in cyprus and of a our staff members and family members of the leaky bank staff and there are so afraid that the government may decide to close down the back altogether or resort to job cuts were different figures coming out but for now they're just worried about the possibility of being there telling the government do not at all do this already cyprus is seeing a huge liquidity crunch a cash problems cash flow problems here we know that the european central bank has given an ultimatum to the country that they will only provide funding to cyprus until monday the twenty fifth the march and after that it will only continue to do so if there is an e.u. or i.m.f. a program in the place so that is also open beer what the cypriots have been doing today they went out into the streets early in the morning to the a.t.m. machines trying to get hold of as much cash as they can already some people have told me that the a limit on the of the amount of money that they could get had gone down and also

we've seen we've talked to shop owners who who are now not accepting credit cards only cash and some are even offering discounts a ten percent discount if you pay in cash gas stations that we went to now also only accept cash the bottom line is that there really is a cash flow problem and until banks open they really are not sure what they're about to do and the serious as far as opinion goes there's a poll here that says that ninety one percent of the population rejected that initial bank deposit levy and about sixty seven percent favor an exit from the euro zone or cooperation with russia and so you can you can really feel that there is a distrust now disappointment towards europe and again as far as they concerned they're concerned the me problem now is how to get through to next week how are they going to have enough money to go about their daily jobs and and i do ask them but the banks may open next week and they asked me back well what if it doesn't so this uncertainty is certainly was keeping emotions high over here. terribly worrying time for people there now on that island well to find out how the cypriot

parliament reacting to this we spoke to christophe message sees an m.p. from the left new forces party he told us why nicosia turn to moscow and away from the e.u. . it was the mentality of troika. come again and again in every country in which they try this policies with these policies that are unfair and human. and the problem question is when are they going to stop and it seems that they will and so we suggest that we. go for their action we have today suggested a good thing to do is to look. at mosco and to try and find a better program that we are more confident and it can be safe and reliable. thing to do keep keep negotiating we. chilled us that we cannot accept them to be reliable and it seems that the end may be

somewhere in taking control. gas and oil resources which is something that a lot this is what we all the people of cyprus at the moment comes think of why. the behavior of the troika is the way it has been in the last nine months and exactly in the last week even even even. so the separate finance ministers here in moscow talks to save the offshore banking club from bankruptcy and to crunch time now the stakes are really high with speculation that cyprus could offer natural gas exploration rights to help secure russian help time's running out the nation is dwindling cash reserves push it towards default piskun off picks up the story. the cypriot finance minister is explained that the country doesn't need a new loan from russia but it needs investment in exchange for this investment it's

ready to offer shares in its banking and energy sector the minister has been in moscow for the last few days and negotiating with russian officials so far he says there's been no official offer but he stressed that he's not leaving until an agreement is reached in the meantime a delegation of senior european union officials is also in the russian capital including the head of the european commission amount of borrowers of course they're also discussing the crisis in cyprus and earlier russia's prime minister the need to me that if i some really strong words to say about the situation but the fear so far the e.u. together with the cyprus parliament have unfortunately acted like a bull in a china shop i think all possible mistakes which could have been made in this situation have been made fun of both would middle of the prime minister didn't stop there he also compared the european union's officials approach to the crisis to how soviet authorities dealt with the private funds of soviet citizens meaning the expropriation of private property of course all this is happening after cyprus and

rejected the bailout plan proposed by brussels and mostly the so-called droid of investors which included. so the country is still on the verge of bankruptcy there's unconfirmed speculation that of the cypriot problem and is a looking at an alternative plan to get out get out of the crisis which may even allegedly include getting out of the euro zone altogether with time is running out for the country and its president said that a decision must be made before the end of the day and for more on all this i'm now joined by the editor in chief of the business new york magazine ben heiress mr harris thank you very much for joining me and well about this latest speculation it's really unconfirmed reports but theoretically how possible is it for cyprus to actually get out of the euro zone and what consequences meters at the can happen i mean being pushed into a corner being told to come up with five point eight billion dollars and they have got it and they hear it must go negotiating with the russians trying to raise the

money but then if the russians say no then they simply haven't got the money and then come monday then they run out of money the system goes into meltdown and how do you get out of that i mean. remake on your a big ations and you leave the. it's a very possible scenario so i press now says that it's not working for a long from russia but earlier the head of the euro group said that if russia gave a loan to cyprus then it would be it would just destabilize the whole situation. are too big of a loan for cyprus to handle so is this a sign that something like that is fair to say or is it a sign that european officials are just simply in opposition to russia trying to get involved in resolving the thing there's a lot of rhetoric flying around over this this whole case it's become highly emotive and people seem to you know lost their sense of balance and commenting on it and it also seems a bit rich to come from western european powers to say that you know they haven't

sustainable debt when most of those countries are laboring hundred percent g.d.p. debt to g.d.p. which is under the musketeer also unsustainable i think the issue here is that you know cyprus needs to raise some money but the e.u. is saying on the one hand we're not going to give you more than ten billion dollars for the seventeen you say you need and on the other hand but you can't go to the russians to raise it either and so it seems to me that they're almost precipitating a crisis it's it doesn't make any sense. when you know it's not the palestinian leader mahmoud abbas has been hosting talks with u.s. president barack obama on his first ever visit to the west bank palestinians were left underwhelmed by the meeting saying obama avoided the most grave obstacles to peace in the region a bomb strips been overshadowed by reports of a garden rocket attack on israel came after his meeting there on wednesday with prime minister benjamin netanyahu paula sleep has the latest on the story. well it's not such a large crowd of anti obama protesters here in ramallah but the sentiments being

expressed here already reflective of the general mood on the palestinian street and what people here have been chanting is a bomb that if you're not black they've also been chanting that the occupation is like a snake and america is being hated of the snake they're also saying that this is a nation that cannot be defeated not been talking to several people and what they've been telling me is that first and foremost through this visit a bomb has made it quite clear that america's support is for israel they complain that he's been talking to these radios hearing the israelis point of view and then ultimately putting forward the israeli position when it comes to peace negotiations with the palestinians we don't expect anything from obama he met netanyahu yesterday in israel and he didn't say one word about the palestinians or the palestinian state or this visit is just for supporting israel they're not considering the palestinians at all we don't welcome a bomber in palestine he's a partner in killing us palestinians there are prisoners who are on hunger strike

in israeli prisons and he doesn't care about them or about this nation. the united states is standing against any attempts to move the peace process forward the last one was the american veto and they refused to let us be part of the united nations this american government that supports terrorism globally they're killing the syrian nation and the african nations and all around the world. this coming on the second day of the american president barack obama's visit to the region certainly a bamma so far is speaking primarily to the israeli public and he admitted as much last night after he met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he said that his goal is to talk to the israelis he's spoken about the importance of israeli security and he's also committed american financial assistance to israel particularly in terms of military programs beyond two thousand and seventeen when the current contracts expire now there's been very little mention so far of the palestinians of the peace process of the continued israeli settlement expansion and

this is in stark contrast to the speech the president gave back in two thousand and nine in cairo when he said that one of his priorities in terms of his foreign policy was resolving the palestinian issue having said that though there is a lot of mistrust between a bomb and that's when yahoo there is a lot of areas of disagreement they certainly don't see eye to eye on the issue of iran and here we have mr yahoo continuing to call for a military strike while obama continues to say that all options are on the table and that there is still time for diplomacy so certainly in this what we see is that despite the p.r. efforts there is no running away from the fact that mr han yahoo still holds firm to israeli commitment even if it means turning his back on his close allies we here in this clip israel can never grow to different persons to others even to the greatest of our friends the palestinian position is that they need to be of

attention one hundred sixty seven borders there needs to be a halt in construction of settlements and in this respect the anticipation and at least the analysis on the ground is that obama is not going to push the israelis but rather push the palestinians to meet the israeli demands. well you know we're going to washington d.c. very soon we're talking to retired u.s. colonel douglas macgregor to get some live comment on that story but let's move on and talk about syria next. the u.n. chief ban ki moon they're pledging to send a group of independent experts now to syria to investigate an alleged chemical attack near the northern city of aleppo both the government and the opposition of called for the probe now after trading accusations with each other about who was behind the assault which killed nevertheless of thirty one people on tuesday and he's really been following these latest developments. reports that chemical weapons have been used in the. area of the aleppo province this is are not clear at the moment people were rushed to hospital after the attack few had visible wounds to

their bodies but some of them were clearly suffering from some breathing difficulties now that is of the assaults were saying that they saw other people falling to the floor dying witnesses have confirmed to r.t. that people have been suffering from effects of what seems to be some sort of guess . who. are. you here. where you're. over. now who could be behind this attack both assad's forces and rebels are pointing the finger of blame at each other but the rockets reportedly fell in areas controlled by the government the syrian rebels have long tried to overrun the weapons plant located in the very same area you can see it on the map right there aleppo and then also here that is the place where some of the country's chemical stockpile is said to be stored in fact the syrian government said in december that rebel forces plundered

supplied of chlorine gas and some time ago this video was posted online showing animals purportedly being killed with chemicals those behind this footage affiliated themselves with assad's opponents and threaten to do the same with those who support the syrian president yet all of this evidence doesn't seem to convince president obama deeply skeptical. any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons and interesting use of the word skeptical with the stakes being so high one of the biggest concerns for all is this an area where syria's chemical arsenal falls into the hands of extremists fighters among opposition forces as history has shown there are examples when fighters supported by the west have eventually turned their arms against their backers now let's for just a moment imagine that extremists among the rebel fighters could get hold of chemical weapons how bad could the longer the tags for example of two thousand and five have been if that was the case we've already seen images of a chemical attack on

a subway in a huge city in one thousand nine hundred five in tokyo by religious sect now imagine a similar scenario but staged by people who work throughout the conflict in syria initially supported by the west run this prosperous you contribute russian returns he is with me now hi there we just heard reports as well loyalist clerics being killed in a blast in damascus small screen position when times get invited to an arab league meeting and cattle to talk about its role in syria's future was this latest rebel priorities you think. well the mainstream media will have difficulty in reporting that one kevin because this is a sunni cleric who is pro by sharia law yes he's been killed in november square in the mustard district of damascus reports started coming in in the past ten to twenty minutes ago so we're very sketchy reporting at the moment that twenty get is the figure that state syrian t.v. is giving so how is it that the anglo-french should we call them backed.

rebels are they rebels are they terrorists those that want to overthrow president assad how is it that they're going around killing sunni clerics in a mosque in damascus perhaps they won't even be able to report about it at all because it's so against the mainstream media's idea of sectarian eyes in syria between shias and sunnis course ocean all eyes now on this new u.n. sponsored investigation into a chemical weapons as well how fair and objective you think it's going to be. president obama seems to prejudge what your reporter was saying and what other commentators are saying because he seems to put the blame firmly on president assad whether it's being used by u.s. anglo-french backed insurgents or whether it's being used by the assad government so there's already a prejudgment going on un inquiries have a very mixed bag over in terms of their reputation they've been good on gaza sometimes they've been appalling when it comes to nuclear negotiations or the i and

other un agency in vienna so when it comes to w m d it's ten years on since the iraq war we know how previous u.n. weapons inspectors reports were sketchy but then on the other hand those same weapons inspectors years later said huge amounts of pressure were put on them and huge amounts of bugging as we know from wiki leaks put upon them so un reports always complicated to tell when the outcome of going to be is going to be let me pick up on what you said just now u.s. president barack obama again said today the government as he put it use of chemical weapons would be a red line but if it turns out the chemical attack if it did happen was carried out by the rebels then of course united states president obama and secretary kerry will say that president assad is not in control of the chemical weapons stores within syria and therefore you know as for debian invasion either way it's a lose lose for president as and when it comes to any w m d use how could it be so

sure that it is only the syrian government that got this got the capacity to launch a chemical attack. many analysts in the middle east will have seen his visit to palestine today as a bit of an abomination and that relates to how president obama can be so sure it's on our side attack after all he was talking about illegal settlements on the one hand and increasing three point one billion dollars worth of aid putting money on top of that for zionist settlement expansion even if you as he was going to having it so perhaps that's why it's short or maybe they talked to someone like curveball who told them all about w m d in syria. a lot of focus too on ghassan hitto u.s. president a lot over a dozen in leading opposition members suspended their membership after he was elected interim prime minister what does it tell us about the rebels and motives. it's some media saying that's because he's a muslim because he did do amazing work with nine eleven in texas before he

suddenly decided he was syrian because of course he left syria to avoid military service to swear allegiance to ronald reagan back in nineteen eighty and of course secular syrians although it is a secular country at the moment oppose his leadership the fact that it's all breaking apart in istanbul tonight means the well in the context of that in the city more than damascus the whole idea of a nato backed instability creation in syria and the three million displaced of course in syria it's getting worse and worse and let's hope people within the state department and in washington realize that funding must stop for these insurgent groups and you know i just remind our viewers before you go just the top line is coming in the last couple of minutes we were talking about first reporting tonight the top loyalist cleric has been killed in a blast in a damascus mosque today or i think i should know good to see you again now back to our top story pictures marty's news agency protesters and police still facing off

each other in the cypriot parliament outside it anyway rallies there now running for a fourth day this is the scene you're seeing temperatures remain high with a few incidents of pushing and shoving i think more than that at the moment we're keeping a close eye on it for you riot police lines are tight there were made fears maybe of violent protest is a furious and frustrated by a nationwide bank shut down and rumored job cuts to come with our bank employees there in fact that line just halted for a second spot with this of a lot of bank employees at one bank in particular they're worried for their jobs tonight millions of savers of course can't access their accounts banks are now said to stay shut until next week to open the banks big massive financing with money cyprus hopes now maybe it will come from russia if not from europe. coming up in a few minutes we got the first official u.s. reaction to guantanamo prisoners hunger strike a top general saying they're starving themselves to near death and the frustration

of the bombers failed to close down the prison that's after the break. well. it's technology innovation all the least of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big.

news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. showing operation today. about one of our top stories tonight a bomb his trip to israel and palestine his first official visit to the region since becoming president to get some expert opinion on the story and talk live to retired u.s. colonel douglas macgregor colonel figure this. pace during his visit to israel and palestine as would change much though do you think he's halfway now through his visit you think he'll be less optimistic by the end of it. well

first of all i think you've got it right when you say the conditions themselves are not going to change and there's not a great deal he can do about it that said i would not question his sis suden sears sympathy for the palestinians he's had this of a seize all of his life and i think they're very real. but he's not going to get them anyway. no absolutely not there are a number of serious problems with anything happening right now or for that matter in the near future first of all if you're an israeli and you look across at the palestinians you worry about a couple of things first of all this palestinian state what will it be if it's like much of the middle east it turns into something we might call an organized crime state probably a larger and more dangerous platform for the projection of terrorism against israel and potentially western states at the same time this arab spring is increasingly a sunni islamised affair and the palestinians would probably be caught up in that and right now the israelis are very concerned about the fragility of jordan and

hoping the jordan can hold things together so what we're looking at to in the near future is a fecht of lee a sunni islamist alliance over time emerging across north africa embracing the arabian peninsula and led largely by the islamist party in turkey mystery to one particularly if they can compel mr assad to withdraw or retire or simply be killed all of these things are are in the backdrop to mr obama's remarks but again you know mr obama has another audience that we shouldn't forget and that's a domestic u.s. audience that consists of very wealthy jewish donors to the democratic party and for that matter to some of the neo cons in the republican party he's trying to reassure them that we will not desert israel and clearly in the in the near term there's no evidence that the united states would even consider such a thing and so let me get you on the line here a great man to ask about this one of the thoughts on the. project upwards of a million billion dollars is going to been spent on this by the end of it is ready

experts say it's still only forty percent effective at intercepting rockets. they want money no truth. well of course i mean much of this was funded with the u.s. money and a lot of it includes u.s. technology particularly from the raytheon corporation so i think what we're hearing now from people is a more objective assessment of just how effective this so-called iron dome is but remember that the israeli defense industry is very different from the defense industries in other countries they're interested making money and they want to sell this to anyone they can find who is willing to buy it so they're not going to volunteer. let us say a factual assessment israel must at least be disappointed with it. if it's only catching about forty percent of what's going in some of the rockets are being deflected i gather a fulling on heavily populated areas well what we should be much more

concerned about and i'm sure the israelis or is it you're dealing with relatively unsophisticated primitive rocketry right now coming from gaza we're looking at a future where the sophistication of the technology and its lift ality will be much greater at which point in time i think we've pretty much concluded we're very limited in what we can do in terms of firing a bullet at another bullet and expecting to hit it so we're looking today in the united states that breakthroughs in directed energy and other technologies they are really the future of missile defense as an american yourself as a final question want to ask you barack obama said in a speech today in a quote hates not fair that a palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of the the same time of course the u.s. voted against palestinian statehood how do those things much together. well first of all the world is not fair i think we know that the united states cannot impose fairness we have enough trouble with it at home. the child is growing up in

a society that is a reflection of the people that live in it and the culture gap between israel and its neighbors is huge there is no rule of law in the palestinian territories as we understand it no respect for private property criminality is widespread corruption these things are not going to vanish if palestine becomes a state and that child's future is not in the hands of the israelis or the united states it's in the hands of her own people in her own family thank you for your thoughts retired u.s. colonel douglas macgregor joining us on the line and of course to know your thoughts as well what do you think about obama's real intentions in israel where do you think this is heading is what we're asking on a website and. this is what you've been telling us thanks if you have the vast majority of you think that the whole trip is nothing more than a p.r. stunt almost a fifty believe a bomb is trying to buy time in a strain israel from striking iran really ten percent here think the u.s. leaders should be focusing more on palestine and a tiny minority that just in four percent. expect the trip to bring the region

closer to peace r.t. dot com is the place to cost you over. the u.s. general in charge of overseeing guantanamo bay says the hunger strike among prisoners they show is that they are very frustrated with the government's failure to close the facility however the detainees lawyers say it's over abuse and the desecration of the qur'an instead the reasoning the number of participants acknowledged by the pentagon now is risen to twenty five attorneys maintain it's more than one hundred auntie's going to each account brings us the latest. what we see here is a small protest in front of the white house one tunnel out of the media spotlight for a while now you don't see much coverage on major u.s. news channels even with the hunger strike going on there right now so these people are trying to draw attention to the detainees more than fifty lawyers representing the president sent a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help later they said the participants health had deteriorated alarmingly and that some had lost more than.